To ask the Minister for Employment and Learning how spending cuts will affect provisions for university students with special education requirements.

I can advise that the current Disabled Students’ Allowances for higher education students with special educational requirements will remain in place and I have no plans to change the funding available in light of the spending cuts.

The following is available in academic year 2015/16: A specialist equipment allowance of up to £5,266 for the whole course; a non-medical helper’s allowance of up to £20,938 per year; a general allowance of up to £1,759 per year to help towards other disability related spending such a printer cartridges and Braille paper; and, any extra travel costs the student may have to pay to attend University or College because of their disability.

In their Widening Access and Participation Plans, all of the Higher Education Institutions have identified students with learning difficulties / disabilities as a target group for interventions aimed at raising aspiration and educational attainment and have set out their participation targets for these students for each academic year in the period 2015/16 – 2016/17. The institutions also detailed the additional measures they plan to introduce to support their retention and completion rates. The above support measures will be funded out of the tuition fee income raised by each institution and since there will be no reduction in tuition fee levels the Department would not anticipate any reduction in the support provided by institutions to students from disadvantaged backgrounds including students with special education requirements.